Foreign banks slapped with fines for swap rate-rigging: regulator

The financial regulator said Thursday it fined three foreign banks operating in South Korea for fixing the rate of a currency swap.

The Financial Supervisory Service imposed a fine of 50 million won ($44,988) each on the Seoul-based branches of BNP Paribas S.A., DBS Bank Ltd. and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Corp. (ANZ), the regulator said in a statement.

They were found to have colluded on the asking price for a $100 million currency swap deal in April 2011, which enabled them to pocket more profits from a higher interest rate of 4.18 percent, much higher than it should have been, the FSS said.

The Seoul BNP Paribas branch was also caught offering brokerage services to clients with financial vehicles worth 700 billion won, which is not permitted under local financial law.

Some nine officials from the three banks responsible for the rate manipulation were rebuked by the FSS with a cautionary warning, the regulator added. (Yonhap News)